1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a motor vehicle lock comprising: mechanical locking and/or latching elements, and electrical, electromotive, and/or electronic components interacting therewith, which components are attached to a part of the housing of the motor vehicle lock, wherein an electric line attached to the housing part leads to at least one of the electrical, electromotive, and/or electronic components.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Motor vehicle locks having these characteristics are known from DE 10 2006 017 830 A1 and DE 20 2005 015 588 U1. These publications describe component carriers that are integrated into parts of the housing of the motor vehicle lock, that are provided with conducting path assemblies and that are equipped with electrical, electronic, and/or electromotive structural elements or components. Examples of such components are connectors, micro switches, sensors, motors, etc., which are used in door lock units of a motor vehicle. Electrical connections are provided by conducting path assemblies essentially consisting of multi-strand conducting paths, which are encapsulated to form a module made of plastic and are in this way embedded into parts of the lock housing. For the attachment of electrical, electronic, and electromotive components, the module can be equipped with separate mountings formed during injection molding of the module. The conducting path assemblies that are integrated into parts of the motor vehicle lock provide relatively stiff or rigid component carriers that ensure safe positioning of the components relative to the motor vehicle lock as well as securing the electrical connection.
Although the conducting paths integrated into the housing lead to a reliable electrical connection, the manufacturing costs associated with the production of the conducting paths are no longer justifiable when long distances to remotely disposed electrical, electromotive, or electronic components are to be bridged. An extension of the component carriers, including the conducting paths to such remotely disposed regions, can lead to such high manufacturing costs during mass production that they are no longer acceptable.